Virginia, Old Dominion, Liberty and George Mason all headed to NCAA baseball tourney

Though the last week-and-a-half hasn't been terribly encouraging, Virginia's body of work during the season was enough to secure the No. 3 national seed in the NCAA baseball tournament, while Old Dominion, Liberty and George Mason also earned tournament bids.

U.Va. (44-13) will host Liberty, the No. 3 seed in the Charlottesville regional of the 64-team double-elimination tournament, along with Arkansas and Bucknell this weekend. ODU is headed to the Columbia, S.C., regional, where it will make its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2000 and will be the No. 3 seed along with Maryland, Campbell and host South Carolina. George Mason is the No. 4 seed in the Houston regional, which also features top seed Rice, Texas and Texas A&M.

On Friday, U.Va. will open the tournament at 2 p.m. against No. 4 seed Bucknell (30-19-1). Liberty (41-16) plays Friday at 7 p.m. in Charlottesville against No. 2 seed Arkansas (38-23). Tournament games will continue Saturday, Sunday and, if necessary, Monday in Charlottesville. The winner of the Charlottesville regional will meet the winner of the Columbia regional.

"Maryland's coaching staff has been there the same amount of time as we have been here at ODU and have done a great job in rebuilding the program," said ODU's Chris Finwood, a Hampton High graduate who is in his third season as the Monarchs' coach. "They are a really good athletic team, well-coached, they pitch it great and have a solid defense. It will be fun to see them in person."

Despite losing two of three games in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, and two of three games at Wake Forest to end the regular season, U.Va. is still first in the nation in Rating Percentage Index.

ODU, which lost to Rice in the C-USA tournament semifinals, picked up the conference's only at-large bid on the strength of being No. 36 in the nation in RPI. Liberty lost in the Big South tournament, but it was helped by being 30th in RPI.

U.Va. also picked up one of the eight national seeds in 2010, '11 and '13. It's one of eight schools to participate in each of the past 11 NCAA tournaments.

U.Va. is led by left-handed pitcher Nathan Kirby (ACC co-pitcher of the year; 8-1, 1.48 ERA, 93 strikeouts, 22 walks, .180 batting average against in 91.1 innings pitched) and outfielder Joe McCarthy (.305, six home runs, 44 RBI, 100 total bases). Brian O'Connor was named the ACC's coach of the year for a fifth time.

ODU has gotten consistent efforts at the plate for most of the season from freshman outfielder Nick Walker (.319, four home runs, 26 RBI) and Gloucester High grad first baseman Josiah Burney (.290, six home runs, 41 RBI), plus dependable pitching from right-hander Victor Diaz (5-2, 3.04 ERA) and left-hander Andy Roberts (6-3, 3.01 ERA). ODU has 10 players on its roster that will play this summer for or have played in the past for the Peninsula Pilots, a Coastal Plain League team in Hampton.

Liberty second baseman Ryan Seiz (.362, 12 home runs, 42 RBI) earned Big South player of the year honors, while right-hander Trey Lambert (11-2, 2.10 ERA) was named the conference's pitcher of the year, right-handed pitcher Parker Bean (7-2, 2.71 ERA) was selected the league's freshman of the year and the Flames' Jim Toman was the Big South coach of the year.

Left-handed pitcher Jared Lyons (2-4, 3.29 ERA), a junior who graduated from Tabb High, has appeared in 17 games this season for Liberty. He's started eight of them.

George Mason's last trip to play in an NCAA tournament regional was in 2009. Second baseman Chris Cook (.293, four home runs, 26 RBI), third baseman/outfielder Blaise Fernandez (.297, four home runs, 21 doubles, 40 RBI), outfielder Luke Willis (.309, two home runs, 34 RBI), right-handed pitchers Anthony Montefusco (9-3, 1.96 ERA) and Tyler Zombro (6-2, 1.96 ERA, five saves) and left-handed pitcher Jared Gaynor (8-4, 1.67 ERA) have been the catalysts for the Patriots.